NaBloPoHalfMo: Playing fast and loose with the Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
~ Excerpt from the First Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States

I am weary of the attempts of some Christians to circumvent the Constitution. I'm talking to you, Christine O'Donnell.

Try to follow my logic here:

• If certain principles are accepted as truth only by a particular religious group, they are tenets of that religion.
• If the government attempts to teach those tenets to the children of our country, the government is respecting that religion.

It's really very simple. If you want to argue about it, you either have a religious agenda or you enjoy a good semantic debate. The former is directly contrary to the separation of church and state that our founding fathers intended and that our courts have consistently upheld. The latter just doesn't interest me right now.

Jesus would be proud, too

I LOVE THIS STORY!

"I think Jesus would have hugged him too. It’s exactly what I read throughout scripture: Jesus hanging out with people that religious people would flee from. Correlation between then and now? I think so."

I Hugged a Man in His Underwear. And I Am Proud.

Changing my religion

Recent coverage of unschooling in the mainstream media has me once again thinking about starting the church of radical unschooling. When one holds beliefs as deeply as I hold my beliefs in RU, it can be rather frightening that it is possible for a government agency to interfere with how one lives. For the most part, this fear doesn't, well, worry me much: there is no provision in Washington state law for anyone to interfere, and even if there were, we have all our legal ducks in a row and could head them off at the pass (if you'll pardon the mixed metaphors). As a worst case, both our girls are old enough and academically competent enough to be graduated tomorrow if needed.

But that's us. Across the country, we have hundreds of friends who may not be in this same cozy position. Some of them have younger kids or less academically inclined kids, and some live in states where there are huge machines for state interference in homeschooler lives. Others, for reasons of their own, choose to fly under the legal radar, removed from all state requirements. As the bureaucrats and well intentioned but sadly ignorant do-gooders learn more about unschooling, I fear attacks on the peace and joy of all their unschooling lives.

At the risk of sounding like a Libertarian, I think the government should Butt Out. I also believe, passionately, that the government has less right to—pardon me—fuck with my children's minds than I do. (And I have no right at all.)

You could say it's a religion I live by. The tenets of this religion are simple but profoundly, deeply held:

1. "The basic right of all human beings is the right to choose what to learn and think." John Holt

2. "Children do not need to be made to learn to be better, told what to do or shown how. If they are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world then anyone else could make for them." John Holt

3. "[True meaning is found] in families, in friends, in the passage of seasons, in nature, in simple ceremonies and rituals; in curiosity, generosity, compassion, and service to others, in a decent independence and privacy, in all the free and inexpensive things out of which real families, real friends and real communities are built." John Taylor Gatto

4. "[Schooling is] simply dragging a child's soul through the dirt.” George Bernard Shaw

or (if you prefer):

"School is prison. School is prison. School is prison." Peter Gray

5. "...Science, art and history [are] all the same 'subject,' and [it includes] people and language and music. [Realizing this provides] a feeling of expansiveness, of blossoming." Sandra Dodd

6. "If one thing makes you think of another thing, you form a connection between them in your mind. The more connections you have, the better access you have to cross-connections. The more things something can remind you of, the more you know about it, or are learning about it." Sandra Dodd

7. "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." Albert Einstein

8. "It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty." Albert Einstein

9. "When freedom is outlawed, only outlaws will be free." Tom Robbins

10. "Autodidacts are the shiznit." Chloe Maier

By pulling these tenets into an organized, government-recognized religion, and thanks to the First Amendment separation of church and state, we might spare our "followers" from any and all interference with these tenets.

Now I just need a name for the church. I'm thinking about "Sundance Temple of Free Unschoolers." You supply the acronym. ;-)

Haiti

I need more words than a Facebook status update provides to respond to this excerpt from a press release from CBN:

"His comments were based on the widely-discussed 1791 slave rebellion... where the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil in exchange for victory over the French. This history, combined with the horrible state of the country, has led countless scholars and religious figures over the centuries to believe the country is cursed. Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath."

First off, note that they admit that the pact is only alleged but then note that it is famous [so it must be true!]. But also note that Robertson used the words "true story" in his initial comments. He allowed no possibility that this story might be one INVENTED by the recordkeepers of the time.

But what really gets me is the disclaimer in the last line. I'm sorry, but if you believe that the people of Haiti are cursed, who else but God would have cursed them? It certainly wouldn't be the devil, since in this little fantasy they are his partners! So who else but God would (or could) have caused the earthquake?

But then again, why am I expecting logic here of all places? *bangs head against wall*

Here is Keith's scathing response to both Robertson's comments and Rush Limbaugh's latest racist crap:


To donate to the victims of this terrible NATURAL disaster, please text "HAITI" without quotes to 90999 (Red Cross, $10 added to your phone bill, 100% goes to charity) or 20222 (Clinton's charity, $5), or text "YELE" to 501501 ($5 to Wyclef Jean's org). I believe these numbers work in the US only.

...

This is a dummy line that is apparently required to get the comments link to show up.

I am

"An atheist . . . is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe, no soul that outlasts the body and no miracles — except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don't yet understand. If there is something that appears to lie beyond the natural world as it is now imperfectly understood, we hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the natural. As ever when we unweave a rainbow, it will not become less wonderful."
— Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

"I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic. What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism."
— Albert Einstein

"Some people have views of God that are so broad and flexible that it is inevitable that they will find God wherever they look for him. One hears it said that 'God is the ultimate' or 'God is our better nature' or 'God is the universe.' Of course, like any other word, the word 'God' can be given any meaning we like. If you want to say that 'God is energy,' then you can find God in a lump of coal."
— Steven Weinburg, Dreams of a Final Theory

"Thus a skeptic is simply a person who chooses to examine carefully whether his or her beliefs are actually true."
— Andrew B. Newberg, Why We Believe What We Believe

"Skepticism challenges established institutions. If we teach everybody, including, say, high school students, habits of skeptical thought, they will probably not restrict their skepticism to UFOs, aspirin commericals, and 35,000-year-old channelees. Maybe they'll start asking awkward questions about economic, or social, or political, or religious institutions. Perhaps they'll challenge the opinions of those in power. Then where would we be?"
— Carl Sagan

I am still Dua Khalil

Crud: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25571617/?GT1=43001



I am Dua Khalil, and I refuse to accept honor killings and the inequality of women as an acceptable status quo.

NaBloPoMo "G"

G is for Getting It



I have always been just a wee bit uncomfortable with unschooling's parallels with religion. To get started requires a leap of faith; when you are worried that things won't turn out well, you trust; and after you've been doing it for a while, you get it. And I can tell you from first-hand experience that, once you get it, you feel converted.

We have seen the light.

This enlightenment is very exciting. We want to talk about it, so we proselytize.

In addition, there is some oft-repeated advice in the unschooling community about not using school language to describe our lives. Now, I believe wholeheartedly that language choices matter—words are powerful, and changing the words we use can have a transforming effect—but I'm aware that the result of this expunging of school lingo means that unschoolers have developed slogans—even, dare I say it, commandments—of our own.

Thou shalt not teach.

So, let's see... We embrace a radical philosophy, we talk alike, and we're very excited about our community.

The cult comparisons are inevitable.

What gets me past this? What makes me a willing disciple of this particular religion?

Big hint: There's no deity.

But my first answer really is MJ and Chloe. The happiness and success of those two young women is the driving force in our house, and, hey, my kids are rockin' this lifestyle. Every single day, they show us proof that unschooling is the way.

Yes, just like any story of a deity or force working magic or miracles in someone's life, some of this proof is anecdotal, and some of it hints of self-fulfilling prophecy. And, yes, in some aspects we have failed to control for unschooling; there are schooled kids who have accomplished some of the same things our kids have accomplished.

So, you might argue that unschooling shouldn't receive all or any of the credit. You might prefer to give the credit to my kids' brains and personalities, or to our parenting, or to "of course they can accomplish those things with the kind of free time they have."

I won't disagree. After all, those things are the heart of our unschooling.

But those things don't explain away all of our proof. And to me, a belief system is not a religion—and its members are not a cult—if you can prove its tenets. With proof, it's science.

Finally, if this is a cult, it's the Cult of Acceptance and Individuality. I can "get" that. :-)

Arguing with atheists

Here is an interesting article written by a Christian (I think) who applies logic to the problem of convincing an atheist that God exists.

How Not to Embarrass Yourself in an Argument With an Atheist

He links to How Not to Convert an Atheist, which was not written by a Christian but which also contains some good points.

All hail the FSM

Pasta Monster Gets Academic Attention

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21837499/?gt1=10547

"Indeed, the tale of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and its followers cuts to the heart of the one of the thorniest questions in religious studies: What defines a religion? Does it require a genuine theological belief? Or simply a set of rituals and a community joining together as a way of signaling their cultural alliances to others?

"In short, is an anti-religion like Flying Spaghetti Monsterism actually a religion?"

Indeed.

Gut check

Frank found this article today, written by Charles P. Pierce (great name!) and featured in Esquire magazine. I thought it was worth featuring here. It's something to think about (emphasis on the word think).

Greetings from Idiot America

Excerpts:
"They have come from Indiana, one woman says... because they have been home-schooling their children and they have given them this adventure as a kind of field trip... [T]hey are greeted by the long neck of a huge, herbivorous dinosaur. The kids run past that and around a corner, where stands another, smaller dinosaur.
"Which is wearing a saddle.
"It is an English saddle, hornless and battered. Apparently, this was a dinosaur used for dressage competitions and stakes races. Any working dinosaur accustomed to the rigors of ranch work and herding other dinosaurs along the dusty trail almost certainly would wear a sturdy western saddle.
"This is very much a show dinosaur."

"The rise of Idiot America is essentially a war on expertise."

"In the place of expertise, we have elevated the Gut, and the Gut is a moron, as anyone who has ever tossed a golf club, punched a wall, or kicked an errant lawn mower knows."

"The Gut is the basis for the Great Premises of Idiot America. We hold these truths to be self-evident: 1) Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units. 2) Anything can be true if somebody says it on television. 3) Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it."

"'You can just as easily have a faith-based, or ideologically driven, policy,' [David Phillips of the State Department] says today. 'You start with the presumption that you already know the conclusion prior to asking the question. When information surfaces that contradicts your firmly entrenched views, you dismantle the institution that brought you the information.'"

"'We went in blindfolded, and we believed our own propaganda,' Phillips says. 'We were going to get out in ninety days, spend $1.9 billion in the short term, and Iraqi oil would pay for the rest. Now we're deep in the hole, and people are asking questions about how we got there.'"

"On the same day [8/19/2005], across town, a top aide to former secretary of state Colin Powell told CNN that Powell's pivotal presentation to the United Nations in which he described Iraq's vast array of deadly weapons was a farrago of stovepiped intelligence, wishful thinking, and utter bullshit.
'It was the lowest point in my life,' the aide said."

"And the president went on television and said that nobody could have anticipated the collapse of the unfortunate city's levees. In God's sweet name, engineers anticipated it. Politicians anticipated it. The poor bastards in the Ninth Ward certainly anticipated it. Hell, four generations of folksingers anticipated it."

"For Idiot America is a place where people choose to live. It is a place that is built consciously and deliberately, one choice at a time, made or (most often) unmade."

Free Hugs

Have you seen someone (like maybe one of my daughters) carrying around a big "FREE HUGS" sign? This is why:



Juan Mann started it all, now it's spreading all over the world. Look at
all these Free Hugs videos! Korea, New York, Hollywood, China, Amsterdam, Romania, Spain, Italy, Canada, Seattle (of course!), and thousands more.

Free Hugs Campaign Home Page

Learning all the time

I'm having a good time reading on this site:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/

From their "Our beliefs" page:
As of 2006-JAN, we consist of one Atheist, Agnostic, Christian, Wiccan and Zen Buddhist. Thus, the OCRT staff lack agreement on almost all theological matters: belief in a supreme being, the nature of God, interpretation of the Bible and other holy texts, whether life after death exists and what form it takes, etc.

A quote and a wish

The quote:
“There is no argument worthy of the name that will justify the union of the Christian religion with the State. Every consideration of justice and equality forbids it. Every argument in favor of free Republican institutions is equally an argument in favor of a complete divorce of the State from the Church. History in warning tones tells us there can be no liberty without it. Justice demands it. Public safety requires it. He who opposes it is, whether he realizes it or not, an enemy of freedom.”

-- Benjamin Underwood, "The Practical Separation of Church & State," an address to the 1876 Centennial Congress of Liberals

The wish:
That one of these days, we won't have to talk about the separation of church and state any more because it will be a lasting fact of life.

More about Benjamin

I am Dua Khalil

http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271

The link above is to an essay by Joss Whedon on the recent "honor" (????) killing of 17yo Dua Khalil, while dozens looked on and even videotaped but did nothing to help her. Joss is the creator of (among other things) our much-loved "Firefly" TV series. Here, he gets political—or perhaps simply human.

If you want to watch the horrific video—and maybe we all owe it to this girl to at least look head-on at what was done to her—the video is available here.

You can help! Speak out against violence against women. Contribute. Join the I Am Dua Khalil awareness campaign. Use your online presence to publicize the essay or story above, or simply link to my blog.

I am Dua Khalil, and I refuse to accept honor killings and the inequality of women as an acceptable status quo.

Just the facts

Once we thought the earth was flat

What of that?

It was just as globos then

Under believing men

As our later folks have found it,

By success in running round it;

What we think may guide our acts,

But it does not alter facts.

...............

-- Charlotte Perkins Gilman

To learn more about Charlotte, visit this Freethought of the Day page.

WWFSMD?

Frank and I found the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster site wildly entertaining. (Thanks, Zenmomma!) Frank says he's a convert. At long last, it's the definitive response to Intelligent Design.

Click here to see our favorite church t-shirt.

Experiencing acceptance

or "What unschooling looked like this weekend"

Greetings from the rejuvenated and inspired Maier family! We returned home yesterday from a long weekend in Corvallis, OR, where we attended the LIFE Is Good Unschooling Conference (with LIFE standing for Learning in Freedom Everyday). It was an exceptionally rewarding experience. I've been blogging in my head all weekend and will now do my best to recall all the cool stuff I wanted to share.

First and foremost, I want to try to describe what it was like to take my kids to a place where kids are really, truly accepted Just the Way They Are. We had probably 150 kids running free in that hotel (unschooling families occupied all but five of the rooms). They laughed, they ran, they dangled pipe-cleaner creations into the lobby, they played games in hallways, they had discussions and art sessions on stairwell landings, they swam in the pool, they rode skateboards in the parking lot. And they didn't get scolded or frowned at, and no one thought less of their parents for their behavior. Instead, they got indulgent smiles and laughter and sharing and other kids' parents pitching in to the fun.

It was amazing and nourishing and such a relief to be surrounded by people who looked at my teenagers with interest and friendliness instead of with the suspicion and judgmentalness and near-fear that they (and we) are faced with in society as a whole.

And do you know what? Nothing got broken or damaged. The nights were amazingly quiet and peaceful (especially considering most of the kids don't have bedtimes). The kids never fought -- not once -- and tears were very, very rare. There were moms nursing babies anywhere they felt like it, colorful signs on room doors, room doors propped open in invitation, conversations happening EVERYWHERE between people of all ages, and joy in the air so tangible that hotel staff members commented on it and asked to be invited to our next conference.

Some highlights:
* Listening to a speech called "Math Happens." It was given by engineer and math tutor and unschooling mom Mary Lewis, and it served to ease away the last wispy bits of my concern that unschooling math is "iffy." Turns out schooling math is pretty darned "iffy," too. (Did you know that 55% of college freshmen [that is, high school grads who've been accepted into college] are not prepared for college math courses?) She talked about how schooling begins immediately to interfere with the brain's natural ability to do computation by taking math out of the physical too early and moving it into the abstract. Also, that's when we start to tell kids they're "wrong" about math, thereby injecting fear and doubt into something that should be as natural as breathing. She said every one of her students (mostly math-phobic adults returning to school) would have been better off if they hadn't had a single math lesson during their childhoods. And she cemented my understanding of the difference between math computation (can be done on a calculator) and math concepts (must be understood by the brain) and how schooling tends to promote the former to the neglect of the latter.
* Seeing all the awesome, diverse, and interesting unschooled teens in general, but especially during the Teen Panel, when a brave group of volunteers answered questions about life as unschooled teens. Summing up some of their answers, I can tell you they have big plans for the future, they don't always fit in with schooled kids but don't find schooled kids all that interesting, their schooled friends don't seem to envy them (this surprised me because I am terribly retroactively envious of their lives), they bristle when asked if they wish they had more outside motivation -- they motivate themselves, thank you very much -- and their parents began talking to them about sex so long ago that they can't really remember when it started. Summing up my impressions, I can tell you they are articulate, entertaining, and the most settled and directed group of young people I've ever met.
* Sitting in our room with the door open, listening to Frank play his guitar and greeting all the people who wandered in to check us out.
* Finding Chloe and her new friend, Connor (16), asleep on a landing one afternoon, catching up after staying awake with a bunch of other kids all of the night before.
* Hanging out in Diana's room, playing with my new friend Fergus (3), who is just about the cutest little guy I've ever met. He has blond hair past his shoulders, a wicked grin, and a very firm concept of his own personal space. Nobody touches Fergus without his permission. I love that his parents support him in that.
* Going to the nearby Chinese buffet place with Frank, MJ, Chloe, and our friends Jaime (11), Mera (8), and Aeron (6), and watching the HUGE joy on all the girls' faces as they filled their own plates with whatever looked good. This included a fair amount of pudding, interestingly enough.
* Having long conversations with the girls' mom, Toast, who is easing her way into unschooling, and feeling like maybe I'm helping them on that journey.
* Watching the talent show Saturday night and seeing the way the crowd encouraged and applauded a variety of performers for more than two hours. Acts ranged from singers, to jugglers, to dancers, to skateboarders, to musicians, to an apparently quadruple-jointed lad who could practically turn his arms and legs inside out. Every single act was warmly received. My favorite was Mera, who performed a song she wrote herself, about how at this gathering we were all superstars.
* Stretching out on my bed with Mera about midnight one night to have a serious discussion about Battlestar Galactica and Heroes, then walking her back to her room through the quiet hotel.
* Dancing the night away at Sunday night's Barefoot Boogie. It reminded me of a Maier wedding, with everybody dancing with whomever was handy, regardless of age and gender and usually in groups of six or more. The conga line was gigantic and intense and prompted one of the few times the kids were asked to settle down just a little.
* Meeting some of my online friends, including the woman who organizes Live and Learn, the East Coast unschooling conference. She asked if I'd be interested in speaking at the 2008 one! Hmm, let me think...
* Leaving MJ behind because she couldn't bear for it to end. She's still in Corvallis with some friends from camp and will be returning tomorrow, although we still might not see her 'cause she's headed to their place on Whidbey first. I talked to her today and she said, "I'll see you Monday at the latest!"

Some lowlights:
* For us, it had to end.
* The spirituality chat that edged into Christian bashing. I have my own problems with fundamentalist Christianity, but it was unpleasant having the chat leader go negative during what was supposed to be an inclusive chat. She has reasons for her anger (e.g., a fundamentalist minister visited the hospital where her daughter lay dying of cancer and announced that 9yo Hannah was surely going to Hell), but I wish she hadn't expressed it there.
* The night guard at the hotel, thereafter dubbed "Señor Grumpy Pants," who was mean to the people who were still in the pool at 10 when he came to close it down for the night. A smiling "Time to call it a night" would have achieved his goal, you know?
* Not getting much sleep the first night because the girls kept coming into the room. At 2 and 4, it was to use the bathroom (even though there are public restrooms on the ground floor!), and at 6 it was to get their swimsuits. Lotta interruptions for a couple long past the infant-and-toddler stage of parenting.
* Experiencing huge envy of the parents who are unschooling their kids from birth.

But none of those detracted much from a singularly amazing experience. I am totally recharged and ready to dive into life!! AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR'S CONFERENCE!!

Want to go with us?

A dozen things we proselytize about

Here's a quick list of things we wish more people could enjoy as much as we do:

1. Attachment parenting
2. Unschooling
3. Pet rats
4. Caribbean vacations
5. Freedom sailboats
6. Cajun food
7. Thai food
8. REI
9. Crocs
10. Burt Rutan
11. MR2's
12. Swordfighting